Ed Castile, executive director of Alabama Industrial Development and Training, said his state agency is working with Consolidated Construction Co., of Huntsville, on the construction contract for the fourth phase of the Robotics Technology Park on U.S. 31, across from Calhoun Community College. AIDT runs the park.
“The start is now,” Castile said at a ceremonial groundbreaking for the roughly 34,000-square-foot building on the south end of the park last week.
“The paperwork is slow, but they now have the green light to go,” he said.
Castile said a committee consisting of representatives from the state’s five car manufacturers and suppliers, aerospace companies, colleges and universities are working on the program.
SAE International, a global association of engineers and technical experts in aerospace, automotive and commercial vehicle industries, is developing materials and certifications for when EV Technology Center students finish the program, he said.
“It’s all new technology, so we’re learning every day what needs to happen,” Castile said.
Employees of state industries learn how to work on and operate the latest in robotics in the robotics park’s Phase 1, the Robotics Advanced Manufacturing Training Center, which opened in 2010.
He said the the EV Technology Center will be like Phase 1, although it moves away from the park’s signature of robotics used in industrial manufacturing. The new center will not include research and development as other phases of the park do.
Castile said the program will center on things like “how you work around this stuff; and how you make it.”
He said they will learn about safety and protecting the electric technology by doing things like wearing special shoes or wearing a mask for a beard “because it’s that sensitive, and a lot of electronics stuff.”
Castile said many of the items that are in a conventional vehicle are also in an electric vehicle.
“It’s just the drivetrain,” he said. “There’s a lot of battery technology, and it's changing about as rapidly as you change sheets on a bed. It is getting better so the batteries charge faster and stay charged longer.”
He pointed out that a standard EV battery’s power is 480 volts.
“Once it’s powered up, 480 volts in most vehicles will kill you,” Castile said. “They will learn how to deal with that safely and not ruin the battery, which is expensive and worth thousands of dollars,” Castile said.
While the new EV Technology Center will provide training, he said the University of Alabama, Auburn University and UAH are developing new EV technologies. The three universities are also partners in developing the center, he said.
“We’re trying to look at first things first — what do our companies need right now and what are they going to need next,” Castile said.
Secretary of Commerce Ellen McNair, promoted on Jan. 1 after more than 40 years with the department, credited Castile for his ability to keep the state ahead in economic development by developing training in the latest technologies.
McNair pointed out that other states, including Arkansas, visited Alabama to see what it’s doing in robotics training. She said Arkansas is also opening its own robotics technology park, but this EV center keeps Alabama one step ahead.
“We can handle the competition,” she said.
Castile said state Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, led the state Legislature to not only fund the continued development of the Robotics Technology Park, but also the $30 million allocated for the new EV Technology Center.
He said he also believes the willingness of Decatur, Athens and Limestone and Morgan counties to each contribute $1 million to the Robotics Technology Park is a key reason the park is also getting the EV center.
Orr said it’s “encouraging and exciting” that Alabama “is staying ahead of the curve” with the new EV center.
Bethany Shockney, president and chief executive officer of Limestone County Economic Development Association, said her county is already the “home base” for robotics with the new EV Technology Center sealing it as a leader in cutting-edge technology.
“Plus, it brings brilliant minds together right here in our area,” Shockney said. “Having that latest and greatest from people who are subject-matter experts in that world is just going to get other people’s attention and help us with industry recruitment.
“We’re very honored to be the host of this kind of facility and this whole complex, and the college (Calhoun Community College) across the street. That gives us braggin’ rights for a lot of things.”
Decatur annexed the Robotics Technology Park into the city in 2019. Mayor Tab Bowling said the city “is blessed” to get this new EV facility in addition to Calhoun for workforce training as education facilities grow in Decatur.
He pointed out that the Alabama Center for the Arts recently opened a new residence hall in downtown Decatur. The art center will soon begin construction of a $30 million dance-music studio on First Avenue Northeast, and now the EV center construction is set to begin.
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